Sizes and distances in the solar system, using a scale

Answer Key - Grade 6 Science Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer, or write your answer on the line.

1. Read this first

   Table (NASA fact sheets), with columns Body and Diameter, km, diameter in km

   Sun 1,391,400; Earth 12,756; Jupiter 142,984.

2. 1.

   Ari reads the NASA diameter table for a space poster. About how does the Sun's width compare with Earth's?

   • About the same width
   • About 109 times wider
   • About 1,000 times wider
   • About 2 times wider
3. 2.

   Bo compares Jupiter, the biggest planet, with the Sun in the NASA table. Which statement is true?

   • Jupiter is wider than the Sun
   • The Sun is about 10 times wider than Jupiter
   • The Sun is about 100 times wider than Jupiter
   • They are about the same width
4. 3.

   Mercury 4,879; Earth 12,756; Jupiter 142,984; Saturn 120,536; Neptune 49,528. Kira is choosing the biggest ball for a planet model. Which planet in the NASA table has the largest diameter?

   • Jupiter, at 142,984 km
   • Saturn, the planet with big rings
   • Neptune, the farthest planet
   • Earth, our home planet

5. Use this

   Table (NASA Planetary Fact Sheet), with columns Planet and Millions of km, average distance from the Sun in millions of km: Mercury 57.9; Venus 108.2; Earth 149.6; Mars 228.0.

6. 4.

   Jun builds a hallway model where each centimeter stands for 10 million km. How many centimeters from the Sun model does Mercury go, to the nearest whole centimeter?

   6 cm
7. 5.

   In Luz's hallway model, each centimeter stands for 10 million km. How many centimeters from the Sun model does Venus go, to the nearest whole centimeter?

   11 cm
8. 6.

   Milo marks Earth on the hallway model, where each centimeter stands for 10 million km. How many centimeters from the Sun model, to the nearest whole centimeter?

   15 cm

9. Use this

   Table (NASA Planetary Fact Sheet), with columns Planet and Millions of km, average distance from the Sun in millions of km: Mercury 57.9; Venus 108.2; Earth 149.6; Mars 228.0; Jupiter 778.5; Saturn 1,432.0; Uranus 2,867.0; Neptune 4,515.0.

10. 7.

    Noah studies the distance table. Which gap is bigger: the Sun to Mars, or Mars to Jupiter?

    • Mars to Jupiter, at about 550 million km
    • They are about equal, like steps on a ladder
    • The Sun to Mars, since inner planets spread out more
    • The Sun to Mars, at about 778 million km
11. 8.

    Pia wonders how far out Neptune really is. About how many times as far from the Sun as Earth is Neptune?

    • About 30 times as far
    • About 300 times as far
    • About 8 times as far, one step per planet
    • About 3 times as far
12. 9.

    Ren checks a poster against the NASA distance table. Which sentence matches the table?

    • The inner planets are spread farther apart than the outer ones
    • Mars is farther from the Sun than Jupiter
    • The planets sit at about equal steps from the Sun
    • The outer planets are much farther apart than the inner ones
13. 10.

    Earth 12,756; Mercury 4,879. Zee lines up planet stickers by size. About how many times as wide as Mercury is Earth, to the nearest whole number?

    3